Little Billy
by HeyThatsMildlyAdequate
Summary: Billy is just a kid who's favorite thing in the world is to draw. One day he makes a friend that strongly disagrees with some of his color choices.


**Little Billy**

II

Little Billy was a small boy only five and a half years of age. Little Billy loved anything that allowed him to be creative, but more than anything, Little Billy loved to color. When Little Billy colored, nothing made him happier than coloring things green. Even when things weren't supposed to be green Little Billy would color them just that, even yellow bananas or blue birds.

One day Little Billy was in the waiting room of a hospital with his mom, coloring. Little Billy's mom needed to go to the restroom so she got up and told Billy to stay right where he was while she was gone. Little Billy was a good boy so he stayed put and kept to his picture. After a minute or so, Little Billy looked up and saw a woman standing in front of him, staring at him. The woman wore a pretty white dress that was stained with paint, most of it red, and that was covered in patches spotting the whole thing. Little Billy also saw that the woman's face was rather white itself and that would have made him feel scared if he weren't calmed by the fact that she had fun looking rainbow colored hair.

She came up to Little Billy and said, "Hello kid, what'ya drawin' there?" Little Billy showed her, "Oh! A little doggy. Isn't that creative. But I see that it's a green little doggy. That's not very creative at all."

"Green's my favorite color." Little Billy said almost in a whisper.

"Oh, that's too bad, much too bad indeed." The woman paused for a moment, her faced scrunched in thought. Then her face lit up and she said excitedly, "I have an idea! I have this brand new box of crayons. How about you give that old, nasty, little green crayon and I'll give you this big new box of crayons." Little Billy really liked his green crayon but this new box of crayons was one of the big ones with fifty crayons. So Little Billy made the trade. "Yes! Thank you Billy! Now don't forget to be creative." The woman stood up and walked away as Little Billy's mom came back.

"Where'd you get those crayons hun?" Little Billy's mom asked when she sat back down.

"A nice lady with rainbow hair gave them to me." Little Billy's mom became slightly concerned at that moment and scanned the room for this lady. She was nowhere to be seen. While Little Billy's mom went to ask the receptionist if she had seen anything, he opened his new box of crayons. He noticed that it had the name Paige written on the top of the box. Strangely, Little Billy couldn't find any green crayons. Little Billy also thought it was weird that at least half of the colors in the box were different shades of red. Little Billy was still happy with it. He had some more green crayons at home.

III

Little Billy loved to go to school. The school had coloring time and little Billy's teacher said that he was the best drawer in the class. Coloring time had come that day and Little Billy decided that he wanted to draw the lady he had met at the doctor's office last week. Little Billy had remembered a remarkable amount about Paige and had a lot of fun drawing her.

"Aww, how sweet." Little Billy recognized the voice, "I'm flattered that you're drawing me. May I see it?" Little Billy handed her the unfinished drawing. "Wow! You did really good! I didn't know you were such a creative artist. But why is my dress green? My dress is white, so why did you color it green?"

"I thought it looked better green. Didn't you like it?" Little Billy felt a bit offended that she criticized his choice of green.

"No. In fact I hate it. Why would you color me green when I told you it wasn't creative?" her voice was getting louder.

Little Billy started to get frightened. He looked around to see if anyone noticed this, but no one seemed to. Paige snapped him back to her with a jerk and stared into his eyes. She started to shake Little Billy.

Paige screamed at him, "Don't use green! Green is NOT creative! Stop using green!" She kept repeating these phrases, as if in a chant, at the top of her lungs until the shaking suddenly stopped. Little Billy heard his teacher telling him to stop screaming and that everything was ok. Little Billy hadn't realized that he had been screaming and stopped and looked up. In place of Paige was his teacher. She was holding his shoulder and looked very distressed. Little Billy began to cry and his teacher came close and embraced him.

When Little Billy got home that day, he threw all of his crayons away and decided to never color again. He kept that vow until his tenth birthday.

IIII

Little Billy's favorite day of the year was his birthday. He loved seeing all of his friends and family and he really loved opening presents. Four and a half years had passed since the last time Little Billy had last seen Paige at his school and the memory of that day had since been pushed away. Little Billy had become a really good artist and everyone enjoyed seeing what new things he had drawn.

Little Billy had to see a therapist after that day. Thanks to his doctor, he had come to realize that Paige wasn't real. Little Billy's therapist had prescribed medicine to get rid of the images and they seemed to work so he kept taking them.

Little Billy opened all of his presents. His favorite was a sketch book that came with a set of colored pencils. They were the professional kind. It was an advanced set of pencils that had all of the colors, even ones like golden rod and scarlet. He was happy to see that it had a pretty nice section of greens. It had been so long since Little Billy had drawn anything green and he was excited to start up again.

Right after everyone had gone home from his party, Little Billy went to his room to draw. He drew a beautiful field, full of flowers that nearly covered the flowing green grass that hid underneath. When he finished it, he saw that it was already an hour past his bedtime. He put his art up on his bedroom wall where he put all of his favorite drawings. Little Billy then laid down and fell peacefully to sleep.

Little Billy woke to the sound of the smoke detector's alarm going off. He looked at the time. It was five nineteen. He turned on his light so he could find his way out of his room. Little Billy then seen his drawing wall. All of his drawings were there, but they had been changed. The once happy, peaceful scenes were now filled with chaos and death and blood. On the wall itself was something written in what looked like dark red paint. It was still wet and shiny and read "GREEN IS NOT A CREATIVE COLOR!" Little Billy ran to leave the room but tripped over something on his way. He looked back and saw his mother lying in a pool of blood, completely still. Little Billy crawled back over to her and saw that her throat had been cut wide open. Little Billy started to cry and pleaded for her to wake up. The fireman had to pry him, bloody, away from his mother's cold corpse.

The police report said that his witness statement was wrong and that there was nothing on the wall.

IIIII

Little Billy had a difficult time growing up as an orphan after that night. His therapist had increased his medication and added in an anti-depressant. They helped but Little Billy never could get the images of that night out of his head. His mother lying dead at his feet, his socks and pajamas soaked in her blood. Little Billy never got adopted and grew up in the orphanage alone.

He was William now.

William became an architectural designer and was one of the best. People from around the world paid William to design their businesses and houses. Even though William was very successful, he was still lonely, still sad.

One day William was called to work for a very new and equally successful company. William met with them and they discussed what they wanted for their building.

At the end of the meeting, one of the men said, "Oh, and we want it to be green to show that we're environmentally friendly. People nowadays seem to be crazy about all that eco-friendly stuff."

William could feel his face grow pale. He could barely squeak out that he wouldn't take the project. The men asked him why he had changed his mind and William just repeated that he wouldn't do it.

The other man said, "What if we doubled what we were going to pay you? You're the best in the business, we need you for this."

William had never been offered so much money before in his life. He thought of all the things he could do with it. Then his mind found the idea of opening an orphanage. One all his own that would be a happy place for children instead of the sad, grey place he had stayed for those eight long years. He simply couldn't refuse the job and signed the contract.

William completed most of the project in great time. However, after most of the coloring and the design, the project sat on William's desk unfinished. A building uncolored. William finally finished the project after a very long night of drinking. Even through his inebriated state, the building was beautiful. The green perfectly matched the surrounding colors and the structure. William was proud of this job and so happy of what his next project would be.

William became very paranoid after he completed that job. Always wary of Paige finding out that he had used the color green. But, it seemed as if Paige wasn't to confront William again. He calmed down a year later when the construction of his orphanage commenced. Unfortunately, William was never to see his vision completed. The name he thought he would give the orphanage would be replaced with William Hitchcock Memorial Orphanage.

IIIIII

About halfway into the building of the orphanage, William was looking back on his original design for the orphanage. He had changed it drastically over the past year. It amazed William how quickly construction was going. Only three months in and already the buildings structure was completed and William could see what the finished product would look like. It warmed his heart. He couldn't even remember how many days the thought of his project and how it would help children brought tears of joy to his eyes. He was proud.

William went to sleep that night with a smile on his face. He woke to a much more wicked one staring back at him.

Paige stood at the foot of his bed, ribbons in one hand, pencil, sharpened to a point, in the other, and a grimace across her face.

"Not creative," she said under her breath.

William attempted to get up from his bed, but Paige moved with the speed of a jackal and was on top of him. Before he had a chance to do anything, Paige punched William. This dazed him. She was so strong. William wondered how such a small woman could possibly be so strong. While in his dazed state, Paige stuffed William's mouth full of the ribbons. He tried to scream but couldn't make a sound. William then felt a sharp pain in his chest. Paige had stabbed him with the pencil. He felt three more stabs. Then, coldness. Paige laughed psychotically. Four more stabs. Darkness. Silence.

IIIIIII

William Hitchcock Memorial Orphanage was completed only one month after William's death, three months ahead of schedule. Everyone involved wanted it done sooner due to William's murder as a kind of sendoff. It was just what he had wanted, a safe haven for orphans. More of a home and a family than just a transition house. No one ever found out why or who killed William. A picture of Little Billy still hangs in the main room of the orphanage that William had spent his life to create.


End file.
